Many aspiring bloggers dream of monetizing their passion for writing, and for most, Google AdSense is an indispensable tool to achieve that goal. As I delved deeper into the world of blogging and revenue generation, a crucial question arose: “Can I get AdSense approval by publishing the same content in both Korean and English on my blog?” This query led me down a rabbit hole of online searches, revealing a diverse range of opinions and advice.
My initial searches, using terms like “AdSense approval for Korean and English duplicate content,” “Can I translate my Korean posts to English for AdSense approval?” and “AdSense recognition of Korean and English content,” yielded various perspectives. Here’s a summary of the most prevalent and relevant information I found:
Concerns about Duplicate Content and Translation Tools
A common concern was that directly translating Korean posts into English using Google Translate might lead to the content being flagged as duplicate by Google, potentially categorizing it as “low-quality content.” Some suggested that while the probability of this happening might be low, it’s safer to construct sentences directly in English rather than relying solely on machine translation. This raised another question: “Does this apply to other translation tools as well?” Several articles advised operating separate blogs for Korean and English content if one intends to publish identical information to avoid duplicate content issues.
Paradoxically, within the discussions about duplicate content, many articles recommended various translation platforms. Among these, “Durumis” (두루미스) frequently appeared. According to these recommendations, Durumis is an AI-powered platform that automatically translates user-generated content into 38 languages, facilitating global dissemination. It also reportedly optimizes content for Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO), ensuring easy discoverability, and offers all its features for free to both writers and readers.
Leveraging AI for Content Creation and AdSense Approval
Another frequently mentioned strategy was utilizing generative AI, specifically ChatGPT, for content creation. By providing specific requirements and prompts, ChatGPT can generate articles in both Korean and English, enabling the rapid production of multiple blog posts. Interestingly, some bloggers claimed to have successfully obtained AdSense approval with content generated this way. However, a crucial caveat was also highlighted: simply copying and pasting content directly from ChatGPT’s interface might lead to Google detecting it during the AdSense review process. Therefore, it was suggested that it’s safer to first paste the content into a plain text editor (like Notepad) before transferring it to the blog, albeit a slightly cumbersome step.
The Appeal of English Blogs
The advantages of operating an English blog were also widely emphasized. Targeting a global audience, English blogs can attract significantly more traffic compared to their Korean counterparts. An increase in international visitors naturally leads to higher ad impressions and click-through rates. Consequently, the cost-per-click (CPC) in the global advertising market tends to be higher. Many recommendations steered towards using WordPress for English blogs, citing its widespread adoption and higher visibility in search engines like Google. Furthermore, some suggested that English blogs on WordPress could generate approximately ten times more revenue than blogs hosted on Naver.
The Verdict: Yes, with Proper Implementation
My extensive research into whether AdSense approves identical content in Korean and English led to a general conclusion: Yes, it is possible. However, the key lies in proper implementation, particularly as highlighted by Gemini and ChatGPT.
Gemini’s perspective: “Publishing identical content in both Korean and English on your blog is absolutely fine for AdSense, provided you focus on quality, clear language demarcation, and adherence to AdSense policies. Many bilingual or multilingual blogs successfully monetize with AdSense. While AdSense itself doesn’t directly penalize for inter-language duplicate content, Google’s search algorithms might. To avoid SEO issues, you should use hreflang tags to inform search engines that your content is intentionally duplicated by language. This helps search engines understand that these are not plagiarized or spammy pieces, but rather different language versions of the same content.”
ChatGPT’s perspective: “Publishing the same content translated into Korean and English on your blog generally does not violate Google AdSense policies. If the same person translates and writes identical content in two languages, it is not considered duplicate content. However, Google does downgrade duplicate content, so if you simply change the language of the exact same structure and sentences, it might be judged as low quality. When operating both Korean and English on the same blog, it’s best to clearly distinguish them by URL, category, or tags for each language. It is better to write separate posts for Korean and English. Use hreflang tags.”
My Conclusion and Next Steps
Based on the insights from my research and the direct advice from Google Gemini and ChatGPT, my conclusion is clear: AdSense does recognize and approve blogs with identical content in Korean and English. The crucial step is to effectively utilize hreflang tags. This tag informs search engines that your content is intentionally duplicated across different languages, preventing it from being misidentified as spam or low-quality content. Therefore, I will proceed with creating both Korean and English versions of my blog posts, diligently incorporating the hreflang tags to ensure proper indexing and AdSense approval.
